In filling technology, it is known to furnish containers with individual label fittings, that can be pre-cut printed paper or plastic parts, pre-cut tinfoil parts, logos or relief-like structures, and, for example, that are applied on to the container surface with the use of cold glue. Because by all means more than 50,000 containers an hour and more must be labelled, highly developed labelling assemblies that are allocated functionally to a rotary table that conveys the containers to be labelled past are used for this purpose. In the same labelling assembly, it is possible to process simultaneously different label fittings at different levels, such as, for example, a body label for the container body, a neck label for the container neck, or the like. A change in the type of label and/or a change in the dimensions of the containers that are to be labelled and/or a change in the division of the container conveyance during labelling requires that the labelling assembly be retooled due to the geometric circumstances given in the labelling assembly. For this purpose, different replacement fittings are held available for the labelling assembly, whereby these are suitable for different working conditions and are interchangeable with respect to one another. The aforementioned high labelling frequencies are possible only with containers that rotate as they are conveyed while in an upright position, as a result of which the rotational axes of components working in the labelling assembly likewise have to be at least essentially vertically oriented. The replacement fittings are thereby mounted in the labelling assembly in such a manner that a replacement necessitates that each replacement fitting be lifted over a considerable axial path during the removal and then moved away upwards and/or to the side, and when being inserted again, in turn introduced from the side or from the top and threaded over the long axial path. Since ancillary lifting devices cannot be used because there is usually very restricted access in the labelling assembly at the top, retooling jobs must be carried out manually by operators, whereby, because of the considerable weight of each fitting piece, the large number of different fitting pieces and, above all, the long vertical lifting and lowering movement paths, this is extraordinarily arduous and non-ergonomic.
Consequently, in the case of the labelling assembly known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,213, each pallet shaft must be pulled out and lifted away to the side after an upper support is removed or pivoted away vertically upwards from a coupling box of a lantern wheel lying underneath. The glue cylinder that is driven from below can also only be lifted out upwards. The same can be said for the gripper cylinder, which can be rotated around a stationary vertical pivotal mounting that, because of the necessity of possibly labelling in a plurality of levels, extends far upwards, and that therefore must be lifted and lowered very far vertically.
In the labelling assembly known from DE 32 16 138 A, each pallet shaft must be lifted vertically a long way upwards from a coupling box of the lantern wheel that is arranged underneath after an upper support has been pivoted away, in order to detach an engagement between a polygonal end of the pallet shaft and the coupling box. This is also true for the glue roll that is driven from underneath and just as true for the gripper cylinder. The magazine in which the labels are held ready in a stacked manner for the transfer is also normally threaded from above on to vertical support columns and supported in such a manner that lateral reactive forces from the label take-over can be absorbed easily, and that the magazine remains positioned properly. Because magazines are frequently positioned one above the other in a plurality of levels, these vertical support columns are correspondingly high, which necessitates that the large weight of, particularly, full magazines, be lifted up a far distance and then carefully lowered in a controlled manner over the support columns, or that the still considerable weight of each empty magazine be lifted vertically over a long movement path. This construction and handling of the replacement fittings, which has meanwhile become standardized over the decades, is ergonomically disadvantageous and user-unfriendly with respect to a fitting replacement, and is critical with regard to occupational safety regulations, for example, also for women, and results in relatively long replacement times.